Assessment & Accountability

The word "ownership," when linked to technology, usually conjures up images of lawyers and of the most feared and revered 2 letters in higher education: IP. But this little story is not about intellectual property per se and is most definitely not about lawyers. It's about students' perception of ownership in higher education's geography.

Turning Technologies has launched an iPhone and iPod Touch version of ResponseWare, the company's interactive classroom response software. ResponseWare has already been available for the iPhone and other smart phones through a Web-based system; the new version is a free download through Apple's App Store.

The Pennsylvania State University's World Campus and Kryterion have gone public with results of a pilot in which students completed proctored exams online using Webassessor Online Secured Testing. The technology is intended to deliver tests without the need for an in-room proctor present.

LodeStar Learning has announced a new partnership with eFolioWorld to integrate its electronic learning authoring suite, LodeStar, with the eFolioWorld electronic portfolio system. eFolioWorld is a hosted portfolio system developed jointly by ed tech provider Avenet and the Minnesota State College and Universities System.

iParadigms, creator of the Turnitin plagiarism detection service, has released a set of tools designed to help students improve their writing skills through enhanced teacher-student communication and peer collaboration. The Web-based WriteCycle suite of services combines the company's Turnitin service with its new GradeMark Digital Grading service and a peer review collaboration and feedback tool.

Kaplan University launched MyPath, a program that uses career planning and student success diagnostics to help students craft a course of study that maximizes their career potential. The assessment tools will be used for all freshmen doing studies in the online program, the school said in a statement, to address study skills and career focus before they begin their academic program.

Campus Technology speaks with wiki expert Stewart Mader, who discusses choosing between commercial and open source wiki products, getting started with a wiki, and why Wikipedia is the single biggest stumbling block to wikis in higher education.

The Sakai Foundation has released the Sakai Collaboration and Learning Environment 2.5.2, the first maintenance update to the open-source learning management system since the 2.5 release in March. The new version includes performance enhancements, as well as a number of bug fixes and other enhancements.